In the 1920s, the Not at Night series collected the most horrifying selections of British horror, originally edited by Christine Campbell Thomson. While most of the tales were reprints from the popular pulp Weird Tales, some were original, and featured well admired talents such as H.P. Lovecraft, H. Warner Munn, Robert E. Howard and August Derleth.
In the new Not At Night series, Stephen Jones (who has edited many wonderful anthologies, such as The Mammoth Book of Vampires, Shadows over Innsmouth and Dark Detectives) continues his tradition of excellence, choosing stories that are both horrifying and intelligent. Some of them recall the pulp past of Weird Tales, while some of them push aside conventions to create moving, unusual stories. Jones approached authors and asked them for stories that they felt had been overlooked or ignored. Looking at the stellar cast, it is hard to believe that any of these writers would find stories that fit this criteria...but each one comes through with some amazing work.
The volume starts out with an alumni of the original series, Hugh B. Cave. His Invasion from Inferno is as creepy as a story can get...it begins with spiders attacking a young girl, and the twists and turns in the plot are neatly done, as the protagonist, Andy Gale, tries to figure out if the lovely woman he came to claim as his bride is worthy of the title of Spider Woman, and all the mystical evil it represents, or if she is simply the victim of small minded superstition.
The next story is by Brain Lumley, and is about a pair of friends who set off to monkey swing across the bottom of a viaduct, which looms high over a river. It seems like an easy enough challenge, until John and David, in an act of boyish meanness, throw stones into the river so that the water splashes Wiley Smiley, a mentally handicapped young man. The price for their mischief may become more than they can pay, for when they begin their swing across the viaduct, they get really tired, and decide to climb up between some boards and walk the rest of the way in safety. Wiley, armed with a sharp stick, has other plans. In some ways, the story is not about horror, nor is it about the consequences of ones actions, but a story about finding courage within ones self to overcome the most fearsome of circumstances.
Caitlín R. Kiernans Spindelshanks offers an atmospheric look at being a writer in New Orleans...as well as a look at a relationship between two lovers whose paths seem to be subtly diverging. The writer feels totally stymied in her work, her beloved Emma is painting the town red, getting more and more involved with the supernatural. Throughout this wonderfully wrought story, we begin to worry that perhaps Emma has called something terrible to life, and that her curiosity may be the death of them both.
Homecoming, by Sydney J. Bounds, is a bittersweet Frankenstein story...more bitter, truthfully, than sweet, as the newly revived man tries to figure out how hes going to survive in a world that no longer wants him.
Neil Gaiman contributes Feeders and Eaters, a disturbingly dark tale about how a handsome man becomes nothing more than a wasted shell...it is a strange, horrific story, made more so by the calm acceptance the narrator seems to have of all the weirdness around him.
Poppy Z. Brights Nothing of Him That Doth Fade is a totally different story, more contemplative than horrible, and tells about a pair of lovers who have lost the magic of their relationship.
The Unfortunate, by Tim Lebbon, is about Adam, who should have died in a plane crash, but is instead saved by a group of ghostly creatures. The price of his good fortune, that now seems to follow him around, is terrible.
Dennis Etchisons One of Us has a kind of off handed coolness that I enjoyed. Heyman has been hired to drive some kids to a concert...but his real agenda may be quite different.
Another favorite story from this collection was Kim Newmans Is Anybody Out There? Part of the pleasure is in the surprise...a medium is trying to communicate with the dead for her client...and finds herself talking to someone shed never imagined. The turn about in this story is clever and very cool.
Dear Alison, by Michael Marshall Smith, is another somewhat sad story...it is a letter, written to a wife, as her husband leaves her...and the explanation for why hes going is very interesting.
The story Im fondest of, however, is Basil Coopers The Gossips ...the Gossips being a grouping of three huge statues, whose sibilant whispers can almost be heard in the background as you read the story of the horrible things they are capable of.
Ramsey Campbell finishes off the set with Needing Ghosts, a story about a writer and his madness...which is a rather simplistic way of describing it, but the twists, the uncertainties, the unreliability of the narrator are really well done, keeping you guessing.
All and all thirteen stories...which fits. There are several amazing illustrations by Randy Broecker. They are all well done, and worthy of being collected...Jones has promised a second volume to this series if all goes well, and I look forward to seeing what surprises wait In Moonlight Only.
4 out of 5 ghosts
March 13, 2003
PS Publishing
Horror
Hard Cover
October 2002
www.pspublishing.co.uk
248 pages
ISBN: 1-902880-55-2
